Obama Gave Iran Money as Part of Broader Negotiations Over Nuclear Weapons

Following the news on June 21 that President Trump had decided to bomb several nuclear sites in Iran, there's been plenty of online argument about whether Trump made the right call or not. Iran, which is a state that has a highly antagonistic relationship with the United States, could be a great threat if it had nuclear weapons.

Of course, bombing their nuclear sites is not the only way to avoid a nuclear Iran. Part of the recriminations around the attack on Iran date back to the Obama administration and the Iran Nuclear Agreement or JCPOA, which was designed to limit the country's nuclear capabilities. Part of that agreement involved sending cash to the country. Here's what we know about why Obama did that.

The suggestion that Obama gave money to Iran is multifaceted. Per CNN, after levying sanctions against the country, Obama's administration agreed to lift many of those sanctions in exchange for limits on Iran's nuclear program. Roughly $150 billion in assets were unlocked, but that was never American money. Instead, it was Iranian money that the country was incapable of accessing prior to the nuclear agreement.

Separately, the Obama Administration also transferred $1.7 billion in cash to Iran in 2016. It was, again, part of the nuclear agreement, but it was not the case that they were "funding the regime" in quite the way that some on the right might have suggested.

Instead, the administration insisted that the payment was for weapons that were purchased from the country in the late 1970s and were never paid for.

Obama also used the money as leverage toward the release of American hostages who were being held by Iran. While the administration initially claimed that the payment was unconnected to the release of hostages, they eventually acknowledged that they had used the timing of the first installment, which was $400 million, in order to get the prisoners released.

In essence, then, Obama sent Iran money that the administration claims the country was always owed, and it did it as part of a broader deal that was designed to control Iran's nuclear facilities and keep the country from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

While many on the right have long claimed that that deal would never have worked, it appeared to be doing exactly that before Donald Trump was elected and tore it up.

Following the end of the JCPOA, Iran started down the road toward nuclear development once again, even as both Trump and Biden tried to negotiate terms around a new deal.

Of course, those negotiations were upended when Israel decided to attack Iran's nuclear facilities.

Now that the U.S. has also joined those strikes, it's unclear what the country's future might look like. Those in Obama's orbit, though, have been clear that they believe that the JCPOA would have made all of these strikes unnecessary. Whether you think that's true or not, though, it's at least something worth considering.